


I just needed to get it off my chest

by acertainperson



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Coming Out, Gay Will Byers, Internalized Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24224374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acertainperson/pseuds/acertainperson
Summary: Will Byers had been troubled with something for a while now. Luckily, his older brother had once upon a time vowed that his door would always be open for him.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers & Will Byers, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 45





	I just needed to get it off my chest

Hawkins, Indiana. 1985. People have, for the most part, gone to sleep in this quiet town, where surprisingly much happens. However, among those still awake was Will Byers.

This time however, it wasnt an interdimensional monster that was keeping him awake. Not this time around. It was a much more common thing that was keeping him up.  
He had told himself, no, he had sworn himself that he wouldnt let it come to this. He never wanted it to come to what he had allowed to happen. Or, perhaps, what had already happened many years prior. He had told himself that he would never fall in love. However, after all that happened, he began to realize that maybe, he already had.

Will had come to accept something eversince the Battle of Starcourt. After he had that fight with Mike. He was growing older. And there was no way around it. As much as he had wanted to not do so. As much as he had wanted to be in Mikes basement, playing D&D with the rest of the Party for the rest of his life, he couldnt change it. He and the others were growing in different directions, and he couldnt stop it. He had since come to accept that fact. But it led him to realize something else. As much as he never wanted to, Will couldnt deny the fact that he had fallen in love. The bigger problem, however, was not the fact that he did.

Lonnie. Troy. Both of them had kept calling him a queer for all of his life. They had, at the end of the day, been right. Will had realized only recently, but he had, for the better part of his life, been in love with Mike. He knew of course that there was no way he could change a thing about Mikes feelings towards El. By now, infact, he was happy to see him have that relation. But he still couldnt shake the feeling that it would be better to tell someone. But whom?

Mike was his best friend, sure, but he was also the boy he was crushing on. The whole reason he was where he was in the first place. He couldnt tell him.  
Lucas and him were good friends, sure, but he wasnt sure just how much Lucas would actually end up accepting him for what he was.  
Dustin, well, he simply wasnt sure if Dustin was serious enough to really quite understand him. He simply didnt want to risk it. As a second choice, maybe, but as a first?  
The girls? Well, he wasnt sure if El would quite understand him, letalone how she would react. She was, afterall, Mikes girlfriend. And Max... he had barely even known her for a year. He didnt feel close enough to her.  
His mom? No way. He knew how his mother was. She would be even more protective of him than she already was. She would become hysterical. He didnt see any way to go about it. Unless of course...

Jonathan. Why didnt he think of him immediately? His older brother was the obvious candidate. He knew that Jonathan couldnt not love him, no matter what happened. He had entrusted him with various secrets before, and not once had this trust been broken. And he had given him a promise. If he ever needed him, even if it was in the middle of the night, he would always be there for him. Afterall, thats what a good older brother should do.  
Will got up out of his bed, walking over to his Jonathans room, and doing the secret knock that the pair had agreed upon. Jonathan, himself half asleep, heard the knock. He didnt know what Will wanted, but he knew one thing: If Will invoked the promise this late in the evening, it had to be important, especially now that Will wanted everyone to stop treating him like a baby. So, he got up and let his little brother in, and he could tell just from looking at him that his assumption had been correct.

"Can we talk?" Will asked, "Like, just us?" "You know the promise i made." Jonathan said, as he shut the door behind the pair of them, "The door is shut. What happens in this room stays in this room." Will sat down on his older brothers bed, who by now wasnt actually that much bigger than him anymore. "So, what is troubling you at this late an hour?" Jonathan asked. "You know how i always said that id never fall in love?" Will asked rhetorically. This would be difficult for Jonathan. Sure, he was together with Nancy, but their relationship was created more out of happenstance and interdimensional monsterhunting than actual courting on either side. "So, you did fall in love then?" Jonathan asked, "Well if its about how to talk to her, id love to help, but im the wrong guy. The Demogorgon had more part in me and Nancy getting together than-" 

"No, its not that." Will interjected, "Its like... imagine your whole life, you get told about how great pizza is, but the only good pizza is salami. And then, because youre afraid that you dont like salami pizza, you decide to never even try. But one day, after people kept telling you for years that only salami pizza is acceptable, you try pineapple pizza. And you like it. But... but you cant tell anybody, because theyll all laugh at you, or insult you, because at the end of the day, all the people who said that youre the type of person who likes pineapple pizza were right all along."

Now that was certainly an analogy that his brother had spent quite some time crafting, and Jonathan was pretty sure he understood what Will was trying to tell him. But he just wanted to make sure. "Are you saying..." "Mike. I realized that ive had a crush on him for as long as i can think. I just needed to get it off my chest." 

There it was. That was all the confirmation that Jonathan needed. "Well, you see," he said, putting his arm around his by now not so little brother, "If i liked pineapple pizza, but someone told me that only salami is acceptable, if someone took that as a reason to insult me, tried to get me to act like i liked salami pizza instead. Id order an extra big pineapple pizza. Because nothing irritates them more than the person theyre insulting proudly proving them right."  
"I dont think i can do that." Will said, "Proudly proving them right i mean." "I never said youd have to be on the nose about it." Jonathan said, "But maybe, next time someone insults you, rather than being hurt, just ask them what the big deal is. Whats wrong about liking pineapple pizza? Why is it something that you should insult someone over? How is that any different from them liking salami pizza?" "What if they bully me even more then?" Will asked. "Bullies can only attack you on what you hate about yourself. They can only attack insecurities. If youre proud of something, they cant hurt you by attacking it. It just makes them look like the idiots they are. And besides, why do you even care so much what others think? Crazy together?" "Crazy together." Will agreed, a smile on his face this time.


End file.
